Soumitra Bose December 10, 1998

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Translated from Bangla by Soumitra Bose

href="/tag/communal">communal harmony - all by herself. The atmosphere in this village is still pure, pristine and venom-less. This forlorn rural district of Duars does have Hindus, Muslims and Christians living all together. The love-potion of Laxmi has kept the communal-binding intact.

RajDanga is a village, off six Kilometers from the Kranti-Hat of MalBazar block of Duars. This village has a household run by the Alam family. Laxmi is their resident. Her name was given by the pioneer of this household Nizamuddin Alam, when he found Laxmi is a toddler in the deep forest of Duars. That was 1923. Laxmi was rescued with her brothers and sisters, but Nizamuddin could manage to keep her, thanks to family feud. Nizamuddin found this toddler very loving and quiet, he named him Laxmi. In Bengal the name Laxmi means a quiet, loving, obedient but responsible child. After Nizamuddin's death Kausar was entrusted upon the well-being of Laxmi. Kausar grew up with Laxmi and thus Laxmi was very fond of him. "After his death in 1985 when dad was buried, Laxmi stood there for hours and wept"- said Aftabul Alam the son and present caretaker of the Alam family Laxmi detests hunting. She would carry on her back any body for a tour in the forest. She however would pull up her front legs and throw off
the driver if she finds the driver intends to hunt, she dislikes firearms in the hands of the passengers. No one in her 75 years of age has been able to cajole, coax or goad her to hunting.

A grand milky white Masjid stands near the Alam house. Laxmi's quarter is just beside that. Every morning Laxmi wakes up, takes a bath in the nearby lake and walks twice around the Masjid. The Maulavi thinks Laxmi does her Namaz every day like that. Before taking the Namaz she never eats -says Abdul- the 60ish mahut of Laxmi. During the Id, the villagers take Laxmi for a round of the village. In the Muharram, Laxmi puts on many kinds of colorful attires. To the Muslims Laxmi is Allah's chosen Fereshta.

Among the Christians Laxmi is God's messenger. Every Christmas, Laxmi is offered a grand Cake. She visits the Church then and is the chief guest in the ensuing celebration till the New Year.

Among the Hindus, She is Mahakal- the incarnation of Sentinel of Time and Fate. During the Autumn festival Laxmi is called from the Jalpaiguri City in the various pandals as a cause-celebre. Umesh Sarkar feels -"Laxmi puts on a victory smile decked, garlanded and spruced up with flowers". She gets special obeisance during the Shiva-Chaturdashi - the festival of Shiva on the 14thday of a particular month.

The villagers of Rajadanga, Barogharia, Hanskhali and North-Mid-village- around 21,000 in number- consider Laxmi to be their savior against wild-elephant-bands.

Aftabul does not recall the early years of Laxmi, Laxmi was there before Aftabul was born. Aftabul too grew up with him, for all that matters there is hardly any kid who did not. Laxmi likes the kids a lot. Every noon Laxmi visits the local lake. She plays around with all kinds of kids in the water for at least 3 hours. The kids tease her a lot and pranks around more. They hang on, play around with Laxmi's giant sized ears. Laxmi does not mind, she loves this kind of frolicking. She carries the kids on her trunk and tosses them around and gives them showers, but keeps a strict vigil so that no one is endangered. Not a kid ever reported any problem of drowning or otherwise when Laxmi is around.

Every morning after the Namaz at the Mosque, Laxmi takes a stroll around the village visiting every household, saluting every family while passing. The villagers rush to the door. They bow to her with folded hands, pays their respect and food for Laxmi. Abdul is witnessing this scene for forty long years without any break.

Laxmi needs Ten banana trees every day. That is not quite affordable by the Alam family. Once they decided to sell her off, but the villagers teamed up, felt insulted, protested and decided to feed Laxmi -by themselves. Every household now produces banana trees for Laxmi's service.

The Wild Animal reservation officials do not have any problem in allowing Laxmi live in a civilian atmosphere like that. Though it is not allowed legally to tame wild animals, yet the chief officer opines "She seems to be doing fine there, why should we disturb her."

She has occasional dissatisfaction too, she went off to the forest once in 1993, as she was hurt for some odd reason, but did not like it there in the forest, she might not be that welcome in the forest by her likes or she missed the neighborhood too much. She returned after 7 days.

The forest Department takes her to Mongpu to entertain the tourists. The money she earns for the service keeps Abdul- the Mahut(Laxmi's navigator) for the whole year.

Abdul is attached to her. Even when he cannot have two square meals a day, he never thought of leaving Laxmi- a life long companion. "My days are numbered, just for the left over days let me carry along with her, she is all I have in this world" - a strange love affair.